Rare Blue Parrot Back from the Brink of Extinction

The Lear’s Macaw, a striking blue parrot found in northeastern Brazil, has been downlisted from Critically Endangered (the highest threat category) to Endangered as a direct result of conservation action, revealed the 2009 update to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

(Lear Macaw photo by Paul Salaman)

The current population of Lear’s Macaw is estimated to be 960 birds, up from fewer than 100 birds in 1989. American Bird Conservancy and its Brazilian partner Fundação Biodiversitas have worked to save the macaw’s primary nesting and roosting cliffs, and together have purchased and protected nearly 4,000 acres of habitat to help assure the species’ survival.

“The fight to save Lear’s Macaw is far from over, but the news that it is being downgraded from Critically Endangered to Endangered is a clear indication that hard work is paying off,” said George Fenwick, President of American Bird Conservancy. “The overall picture for birds throughout the Americas and the rest of the world continues to be a great cause for concern, but the macaw serves as a shining example of what we can achieve when focused conservation action is backed up by broad cooperation and the required resources.”

2008 Annual Report

The 2008 Rainforest Biodiversity Group Annual Report is now available online at: http://www.rainforestbiodiversity.org/reports/Annual_2008.pdf. Last year was a very productive year for our organization. Many advancements were achieved for our Costa Rican Bird Route project (www.costaricanbirdroute.com), efforts that include advancing the sites of the Bird Route toward becoming more sustainable; planning training sessions for local guides; and lots of promotional efforts for the project. The most notable of which is getting highlighted in the 2009 version of the Lonely Planet Guide to Costa Rica! Very exciting. We thank all of our supporters for helping us reach our goals!

- RBG

Summer Fun

Hi everyone! Summer is in full swing here in Madison, WI, and there is no shortage of things to do here. So much so that we have been finding it hard to blog, because it's too nice out to be on the computer! One of the many fun things about summer here in Madison is all of the festivals and farmer's markets. Rainforest Biodiversity Group recently set up a booth at a local favorite, the Waterfront Festival. This was our third year in a row at this festival, and once again, it was a delight to be able to share information about who we are and what we do with so many interested folks. We're hoping to do another festival in August as well as have a table at the Farmer's Market on the Capitol Square, which will be our first time at this venue. This farmer's market is the largest in the United States, so we're excited to have another opportunity to do some grassroots outreach and education.

Hope you're all having fun and safe summers!

- RBG

2009 RBG Bird-a-Thon Wrap Up

By Andrew Rothman, founder of Rainforest Biodiversity Group:

The 9th was a bit chilly, and when we started at 6 am the chill was accompanied by rain and high winds. Not good birding conditions. Luckily by 6:30 the rain had stopped and the wind had died down and Bill Volkert of the WI- DNR , Holly Robertson (president of RBG) and I were able to get up a few mist nets as part of the 12th Annual Horicon Marsh Bird Festival.

Although I love the opportunity to get some banding in, it actually hindered my ability to increase the number of birds on my list for the day. However, I was happy to walk away with a list of 80 species for the day. Some of the morning highlights included us catching a least flycatcher, a northern waterthrush, a few nashville warblers, a number of catbirds, a couple handfuls of yellow warblers, and as our friend Craig Thompson might say, more yellow-warblers and palm warblers than you could shake a stick at. Each time Holly and I returned to the nests to extract we'd say "holy crap" as we began to take out the 20 or so yellow-rumped warblers, and dozen or so palm warblers we had caught in just two nets!

The overcast weather actually kept the birds hopping for much of the day, however I was caught teaching a beginning birder class for two hours in the early afternoon as well. I dont think I added any new species for the day during the begining birder walk but we did get good chances to help our beginning birders see the difference between tree swallows, northern rough-wing swallows and barn swallows.

As soon as I got done with the class and finally got some food in me, it was off to the races (literally a race before sundown) to get as many birds as I could. Luckily I hadnt seen many ducks species yet, and here I was at Horicon Marsh. I knew I could get my numbers up. We hit some Horicon hot spots and quickly began to rack up our duck species, including large numbers of ruddy ducks, and fair number of redheads. We also had great looks at american bittern and black-crowned night heron.

As we drove up the eastern side of the marsh, we picked up northern harrier, a big group of turkeys, and bobolink. We crossed the north end of marsh, and picked up more ducks including ring-neck duck, and shovler. As night fell and we headed into the prison town of Waupun to get pizza at the Pizza Barn we picked up our last bird species, my 80th of the day. A sharp-shinned hawk flew right in front of us, hopefully after picking off a house sparrow or two from the feeders at the nearby houses.

Although not as productive as year's past it was great to get back to Horicon, and have some weather that didnt make me sweat. It also gave me a chance to reflect on and appreciate the birds of WI that I normally dont get to see down here in the rainforest. For instance the ducks, I left with a much greater appreciation for how cool ducks are. Additionally, it might be hard to believe, but I think I actually missed the constant honking of the Canada geese.

Thanks again for helping out with the Bird-A-thon. Checks can be made out to Rainforest Biodiversity Group and sent to 7 N. Pinckney St, Suite 220, Madison, WI 53703. Also make sure you SEND ME YOUR T-SHIRT SIZE, if you donated more than $50. Once I have that we can get the shirts made, and get them into the mail to you. That means I need your address as well.

Thanks for the support!

Monarch Butterflies

(Photo courtesy of journeynorth.org)

Birds aren't the only thing on the wing these days. The Monarch butterflies are making their annual journey north from Mexico. The following update is courtesy of Journey North:

An unusally warm air mass spread across the eastern half of the United States and southern Canada during the past week. Northern regions were even warmer than Texas!

Monarchs flew and blew northward with this warm air according to our observers. They entered four new states on that single day. People everywhere were surprised by the monarchs' early arrival and amazing ability to find milkweed:

* While students were outside during a fire drill at Washington School in Summit, New Jersey, they spotted a monarch laying eggs in the school butterfly garden!
* An astonishing 125 eggs were layed in a butterfly garden in Pennsylvania on milkweed that was only 3 inches tall.
* Students in Bridgewater and Somerville, New Jersey both saw their first monarchs this week. "This is so early for us and so exciting," said teacher Cathy Griffin.
* Add six news states to your list! Monarchs have moved into Indiana, Ohio, Maryland, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Predict: When will monarchs appear in the first Canadian Province?

The Whoopers

Not only are the songbirds heading north, but so are the Whooping Cranes! Since 1999, Wisconsin has played a major role in efforts to restore a migratory whooping crane population in eastern North America, with a core breeding area in Wisconsin. Prior to these restoration efforts, only one migratory population of whooping cranes existed in the wild, and any catastrophic event could completely eliminate the species. An additional independent population of birds needed to be established to reduce the risk of extinction of this endangered bird. Wisconsin DNR is a founding member of the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership, a large group of nine government and private sector organizations, with the mission of restoring a second self-sustaining migratory population.

Whooping Crane - Photo by Ryan Hagerty, USFWS

Two release methods are being used to rebuild the population. Initially, all captive-reared crane chicks were conditioned to follow an ultralight aircraft from Necedah National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in central Wisconsin to Chassahowitzka NWR on the Gulf coast of Florida. These birds then make the return and subsequent migrations south unaided.

According to Journey North, the first EIGHT ultralight-led whooping cranes from the Class of 2008 arrived back in Wisconsin April 16! Back home are #804, #814 and #818; and the St. Marks cranes #805, #812, #828, #829 and #830 (minus 826 and 813). Juveniles 803, 824, and 827 were still in Georgia (presumably together), where flooding has created good crane habitat.

On April 14 Wisconsin teacher/craniac Darlene Lambert saw four whooping cranes at Necedah Wildlife Refuge.

Spring 2009 Newsletter

The Spring 2009 Newsletter of Rainforest Biodiversity Group is now available online: http://www.rainforestbiodiversity.org/newsletters/Spring_2009.pdf.